The American Specter
by TheLadySomething
Summary: When Fred, Daphne and Velma visits Scooby and Shaggy in Cleveland, they thought it's going to be a quiet visit. Boy, they're in for a surprise. F/D, S/V hints, SD/OC.


Title: The American Specter

Chapter One: Scooby and Shaggy's Precious Little Lives

Norville "Shaggy" Rogers open his heavy eyes at the annoying buzz of his alarm clock. It's 6:00 in the morning. He groans as he pulls the covers over his face, mulling over the idea of taking a personal day. After three or four seconds, he shoves the brightly multi-colored quilt away from himself. Mere laziness would not stop him from getting his paycheck. He climbs out of bed and out of his room as he went to Scooby Doo's room where Shaggy sees him still sleeping on his bed with a nightcap on. He went over to Scooby's bed and gave him a gentle shake to wake him. Normally, most dog owners provide them with doggie beds or dog houses in the backyard, but Scooby Doo is obviously not like other dogs. Name another dog you know that has opposable thumbs and speaks English with a slight speech impediment?

Shaggy and Scooby's morning routine isn't out of the ordinary, they brush their teeth, Scooby did his business in the background while Shaggy changes into his work clothes which consists of a winter jacket, ski cap, green short-sleeved dress shirt, brown trousers and black sneakers. The only out of the ordinary habit in their morning routine is their ludricous portions of meals which each plate can feed a family of five!

After breakfast, Shaggy grab his messenger bag, a cooler for lunch and keys as he head out the door. "Like, take care of the house while I'm gone."

Scooby stood up straight and made a salute. "Ro roblem, Raggy!" follow by a slight snicker.

Shaggy drove to work in a Suzuki Samurai. There was still snow on the ground and the sky is grey outside with little sun, but what would one expect in Cleveland during the month of December?

Scooby meanwhile spends the next few hours doing various things, eating, watching morning cartoons, eating, making his and Shaggy's bed, eating, checking updates on his extended family through the Internet, eating, making a grocery list for the next week including a bulk size box of Scooby Snax and so as to make up for lost time eating. Nothing out of the ordinary. He has to wait until he leaves at 11:45 to go to Shaggy's school for lunch.

Meanwhile, Shaggy arrives at the Miskatonic Preparatory School where he works as a culinary arts teacher. He had to thank Miss Grimmwood for recognizing his obvious talents.

The day from then on seems like a blur. Shaggy entered his class where the majority of his students were giggling teenage girls who'd rather gossip and text on their smart-phones than learning why one should hollow out the insides of a French baguette to make the perfect sandwich. This would go on for three classes until the lunch bell rang. Even as a teacher, lunch is always his favorite time of the school day.

He takes his cooler and walks to an isolated part of the school where neither his coworkers nor his students would see him. He looks around and his watch, his lunch companion is late for their time of the day. "Scooby-Doo, where are you?" he whisper to himself.

But look on yonder was his best friend running towards Shaggy as Scooby tackles him down on the floor, greeting him the only way he knows how, by slobbering licks on his face.

Shaggy laughs, "Alright, already, Scooby. Stop that before our lunches goes bad."

"Runch?" Scooby's voice perks up as he gets off of his best friend, sitting on the floor awaiting his lunch.

Since there were no benches around the area, Shaggy sat on the floor with his legs crossed as he opened the lid of the cooler. Through the power of hammer-space, Shaggy extended two large, long sandwiches out of the cooler and handed one of them to Scooby. Within a few seconds, the cowardly duo engorged the sandwiches in a few large bites.

"Mmm, rood rfood." Scooby said, rubbing his full tummy.

"Like, yeah". Shaggy replied, feeling content as he sits on the floor, leaning against the wall of the school as he rubs his stomach.

"Oh, my God!"

Shaggy and Scooby turn around and see that the voice came from one of Shaggy's female students along with four other girls; all of them were the most popular girls in Miskatonic Preparatory. The former member of Mystery Inc. quickly got up from his seat as he dusts off the crumbs off his dress shirt, trying to regain his composure.

"Like, girls, I…"

"Mr. Rogers!" Heather, Shaggy's student from second period, chirped, "I didn't know you had a dog!"

A confused Scooby turns his head side-to-side, "Rog? Rhere?"

One member of Heather's posse squealed as she walks to Scooby, rubbing his cheek to hers. "He's such the cutest thing!" The rest of the popular girls follow pursuit, all petting and hugging Scooby, commenting on how cute he is.

Scooby blushes from this attention. "Rawwww…" The Great Dane said, acting all bashful.

Shaggy smiles as Scooby getting this much fascination with the girls, but he turn his focus on Heather, the ringleader of the popular clique. She was an exotic-looking girl with thick black hair, sharp nose and a dark tan.

"Well…" The beatnik said, "Like, what brings you and your friends this side of school? Did you know that the school lunch hall is, like, that way?" He points to the east side of campus

"I'm sorry, Mr. Rogers… but…" Heather bats her eye-lashes at him, "Well… It's been almost four months since you had been teaching in our school. The girls and I were wondering about you so we looked up your name online and… Is it true that you're part of this paranormal super-sleuth team called Mystery Inc.?" One of the Heather's blonde friends holds up her iPhone which shows an old photo of Scooby, Shaggy along with other members of their old gang. It turns out to be a scanlation of a newspaper photo from years ago. Funny how technology finds you and your past.

Before Shaggy could answer, a man's voice surprised him, Scooby and the girls, "Hey, what's going on in here?" Mr. West, the science teacher comes up to them.

Heather and the rest of the popular girls all scatter at the sight of Mr. West, leaving Shaggy and Scooby alone with him. They have no idea why the girls are scared of Mr. West; he seems like any other seemingly-normal guy that Scooby and Shaggy come across with his dark hair, wire-framed glasses and a laboratory coat with bits of red spots on it.

"Like thanks." Shaggy said, running his hand over his unkempt light brown hair.

"Reah, ranks!" Scooby said, and then paused. "Ror rwhat?"

"Don't mention it, Norville." Mr. West replied. "Be careful with those girls, they can be pretty forward little witches."

"Hey! That's not a nice thing to say," Shaggy said, "These are teenage girls."

"That's not what I meant." Mr. West rubs his temples and sighs in defeat. "You know what, I'm sorry. I know that's uncalled for. Don't worry; I'm not going to tell Headmistress Jing about you" Mr. West shudders when he looks at Scooby for a moment, "… and your dog."

Scooby and Shaggy were both confused at Mr. West, but grateful that he wasn't going to tell the headmistress about Scooby's presence. Shaggy worried if Heather and those girls are going to tell the headmistress about Scooby. Then, the bell rang for lunch to be over.

The moment Mr. West left, Shaggy turn to Scooby, "Well, Scoob. Like, I guess I have to get to class."

Scooby lowers his head with a slight whimper; he didn't like to be apart with his best friend and owner. But he knew that Shaggy is going to be in big trouble if he was caught with him on school. This school is not like Coolsville High where they allow Scooby on school ground or at least, they're stupid enough to mistake a poorly-disguised Scooby as a high school student. The last time Headmistress Jing caught Shaggy with Scooby; Shaggy got sent to her office where he was chewed out of an inch of his life and thrown a string of obscenities in Mandarin Chinese, but got off with a warning.

"Alright, Scoob," Shaggy said as he packs up the cooler and head into his class. "I'll see you around 3:30."

"Rye, Raggy." Scooby said as he left the school before anyone gets a chance to see him. The rest of the day, the Great Dane spends his time hanging out with his canine buddies at the Dog Park and going to the house next door to his house to see his girlfriend, a cute 3-year old Great Pyreneens named Yuki, where they both talk and walk around the neighborhood and talk about their day. Scooby was happy to find a dog, a female dog in fact, who can speak the same language as him. By the time, the canine couple reached their respective houses Scooby gives Yuki a kiss on the cheek while Yuki gives him a lick back before heading home. Scooby went back home, prepped a big snack and waited on the porch for his best friend.

The rest of the school day seems like blur as well. Shaggy couldn't help but wonder why those girls were so interested in his past as part of Mystery Inc., especially when a few girls in Heather's posse were staring a few holes through his head. He only shook his head and continued on with the class.

When the school day was over, Shaggy went straight home where he met with Scooby, who greeted him with more slobbering licks on the face. Their after school routine consist of Shaggy changing from his work clothes to familiar green t-shirt and brown slacks, follow by the two of them snacking on Scooby Snax and microwavable pizzas while watching cinematic classics by the likes of Uwe Boll and Ed Wood.

Around five, Shaggy and Scooby take a walk to a pet-friendly bar called Hair of the Dog for happy hour. They rarely partake in any alcoholic drinks but they know two new friends there, one of them is Linda, a delicate Japanese-American woman dressed in black as if she's Yoko Ono, and the other was her husband, Matthew, a white muscular bald man wearing a chef's uniform and who dwarfs Shaggy by a whole inch. With them is their dog, Yuki, coming Scooby to give him a lick on the nose. Scooby blushes as he gives her a lick back on the cheek. They both enjoy this pair, but they can't compare to Fred, Daphne and Velma.

It was just like any other happy hour in the eyes of the cowardly duo until Linda sitting right next to Shaggy, asks an innocent question, "So Norville, you didn't tell us how'd you're date go with that professor?"

Shaggy nearly choked on his second portion of piping hot chili cheese fries. Fortunately, Scooby was there to pat him on the back and hand him a glass of Coke to wash it down. "Umm... Like, I decided... she's not my type."

Both Linda, her husband and Scooby Doo were shocked at this development. Scoob wanted to see his best bud happy with someone he could love like him and Yuki. But his canine instincts told him that Shaggy had had his eyes set on someone else a long time ago.

"What are you talking about? She is your type." Linda said, "You said you want a girl who is a million times smarter than you."

"Yeah," Linda's husband, Matthew, said, taking a swig of beer, "What's more smart than a physics professor in Case Western Reserve University?"

"Like, yeah." Shaggy said, sheepishly, nibbling on the end of a chili cheese fry while Scooby wolfed down his third plate, "But she's too pretentious, a girl who is smart as Albert Einstein, groovy, but a girl who uses her brains to make herself feel all high and mighty, not so groovy".

"But she has glasses," Linda said while chomping loudly on a small bowl of pretzels. "You like a girl who wears glasses".

The beatnik took a sip of Coke, "Yeah, but they are, like... decorative."

Matthew cocked his bushy eyebrows, "And?"

"To me, it's like, like, a girl who has her bosoms done."

The married couple at the table groaned at his pickiness. Scooby covers his head in a mix shame and embarrassment. Shaggy has no problem with getting girls; trying to find The One for him is where the challenge lies.

"Okay, so the professor isn't the girl you're looking for." Linda said. "What about that girl you met at Matt's restaurant? You seemed quite taken by her."

"Nah! I just like her hair. All nice and neat and chocolaty." His mind quickly wanders from the conversation over to a mountain of Hershey bars and the short strands of a girl he's longing for.

"Plus, I find that short pageboy hair-do is pretty cute." Shaggy said all of this in between bites. "Like, she's wears too much make-up, I like a nice all-natural girl, a girl who doesn't care about her appearance."

"And you stopped dating that waitress from the Vegan Hut why?" Linda said sardonically.

"She's cute; I like the fact that she's a petite gal with freckles, but…"

"But?" Linda and Matthew curiously said in unison.

"She's more chicken than me! We went to see the movie revival of _Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein _and mid-way through the movie, she, like, runs out of the theater screaming like a banshee!"

Scooby shivers as he recalls that little incident. He was there, sitting a few rows behind them, enjoying the movie with a big tub of popcorn until he heard a big scream coming in the theater and not from the movie, then he spots a comically frightened young woman running through the aisle and out the building with Shaggy chasing after her giving up before he reached the exit

"Oh," said Matthew trying to stifle a snicker while Linda covers her laugh behind her beer bottle, "that's pretty bad."

Shaggy stops eating and beamed a big smile at this thought, "Like, I like a girl who is brave, braver and smarter than me, someone who can push me into dangerous situations."

"Let me get this straight," Linda said, "You want a petite brunette who has short hair, freckles, and glasses who doesn't care about her looks and is way smarter and braver than you?"

Shaggy's eyes lights up and smiles like a joker, "Like, yeah! If you can find a girl like her, I would be groovy!" Scooby tries to put the pieces together of Shaggy's idea of a perfect woman until his train of thought is interrupted.

Matthew abruptly standing up from his seat, his voice booming so loudly that a few bar patrons can hear him, pointing at Shaggy, "You, my friend, are too picky!"

"He's right; I mean we can hook you up with one or the other." Linda said softly, "But finding that girl with your description, it's going to take months or years."

Shaggy's hopeful expression deflated as he proceeds to drown himself in his plate of fried pickles, "Like, I guess you're right. It's impossible to find a girl like that, especially a girl like that who loves dogs. Right, Scoob?"

Scooby lent a shoulder for Shaggy to lean on while giving him a pat on the back, "Rit's ralright, Raggy. Rhere's rlenty rishes rin rhe rea."

The beatnik gives the Great Dane a small smile as he rubs his head, "Thanks, Scooby."

Linda gives him a sympathetic smile, "Scooby's right, there's plenty of fishes in the sea. You just need to widen your standards and be a little bit open-minded".

Matthew nodded, "Yeah, like we did with your cooking."

"Hey!" Shaggy said pretending to act offensively as he lightly threw a fried pickle at him.

Everyone at the table laughed including the dogs.

After happy hour ended, Scooby and Shaggy heads back to their humble house. It was nothing fancy, it's a two-story, four-bedroom 90-year old spacious brick bungalow with a cute porch in the front, leaded windows and situated in a nice and quiet neighborhood. The cowardly duo cooked a ridiculously large and unorthodox dish of mofongo, Yukon gold potato pizza and bacon chocolate crunch bars which they ate it in a matter of minutes. Scooby watched some television including Daphne Blake's show, _Coast to Coast_, which he recorded on TiVo while Shaggy was preparing for his next lesson before heading to bed.

Heading upstairs to Shaggy's bedroom, Scooby stops at the open doorway, "Rey, Raggy."

"Like, what is it, Scoob?" Shaggy said changing into his blue pajamas.

"Do rou miss Daphne, Red and Relma?"

Shaggy stops from what he was doing and turns to Scooby, it's obvious on the look on the Great Dane's face that he missed them so much.

"Of course, I miss them." Especially, Velma, but that's a whole another story. "Like, maybe we could visit the old gang when winter break hits. I mean I think Velma's done with her masters in… I think physics or something. I'm sure Fred and Daphne are taking a break for a week or two around that time. Like, I sure hope they're all in Coolsville (Crystal Cove) for Christmas in two weeks."

"Reah, reah!" Scooby nods his head with excitement as he imagines hot cocoa, Christmas presents and snowball fights like the good old days while Shaggy finished the final button of his pajamas.

The beatnik yawn as his eyes are getting heavier and heavier as he heads straight to bed; it's going to be another school day tomorrow. "Well, I'm beat. Night Scooby."

"Rood right, Raggy." Scooby lies down on the soft rug in front of Shaggy's bedroom door as he closing his eyes.

This life may not be as exciting and they may not be chasing after fake or real monsters and solving mysteries with their friends, but life seemed pretty peaceful and sweet for Scooby and Shaggy. For now.


End file.
